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We can't afford a house with yard and garage in the Bay area so living in an apartment complex with our 2 year old. Most of the days he gets an hour of outside

We can't afford a house with yard and garage in the Bay area so living in an apartment complex with our 2 year old. Most of the days he gets an hour of outside time at the daycare and that's it. All of us are more miserable the longer he is inside the apartment. It'll probably obliterate out finances but he's the reason I am looking for a house possibly within a block of a children's park.

ignormies 4y ago
The issue isn't purely house vs apartment. It's a symptom of our neighborhood design. Not Just Bikes has a really good video on why suburbia (usually single family housing) is often worse for children than denser environments. https://youtu.be/oHlpmxLTxpw https://youtu.be/oHlpmxLTxpw
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- onlypositive 4y ago
  Definitely agree it comes down to design, this video is really just about one type of suburbia, the type without any shops or recreational facilities of any kind or even footpaths to get around. The suburbs I grew up in were full of kids running around from house to house to park to shop to tree to trains to busses to school to tennis court to basketball court to skate park etc. Urban areas where I grew up tended to be kind of concrete filled jungles. Similar facilities but nowhere near as exercise encouraging. Now we live in a country where suburbs lack footpaths and there isn't much to do locally. We're considering moving back to another suburb in a nearby city that was urban and apartment filled but at least had a local mall, parks and rec centre that was extremely popular and well utilised.
  - ignormies 4y ago
    Yep definitely agree. I grew up in Phoenix and moved to the Bay Area after I graduated. I've come to absolutely adore the density (as paltry as it may be compared to other places) and abhor the environment where I came from. I can finally walk, bike, or train to 99% of things I do day-to-day. I'd never ever move back to Phoenix, but likewise I don't see myself ever moving to, say, NYC. It goes too far in the other direction and is one of those concrete jungles you speak of. I really think cities like London and Amsterdam strike a great middleground. Density, but not at the cost of green space.
nicolas_t 4y ago
Don't the apartments in the Bay area have children playground nearby? Here in HK, there's almost always a children playground within 5 minutes walking distance of any apartment tower. Just next to our place we have 3 different playgrounds, it's been great because even though we live in an apartment, our son has met a lot of his neighbours by playing at the playgrounds.
- esalman 4y ago
  You're right, there are nearby playgrounds. As the other comments put it, it is more about the walkability/design of the neighborhoods that's the issue.
  - nicolas_t 4y ago
    Ah yes, that does make a big difference, most people here don't have cars (109 cars per 1000 people in HK compared to 831 cars per 1000 people in the US) so everything here is designed around walking/public transportation.
- deleted 4y ago
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fxtentacle 4y ago
Italy does this extremely well. There's public town squares pretty much everywhere and in the evening people walk there with their kids. You get to gossip with all your neighbors and your kids can play, run and scream until they're tired.
- Pamar 4y ago
  This is because Italy has lots of small towns/villages. Large cities (e.g. Milan) are an entirely different story. Also, if you live outside of large cities... you can't do much without a car, which implies another set of problems.
- nradov 4y ago
  The birth rate in Italy is down to 1.24 so I don't believe your claim that they're doing anything extremely well. How much of Italy have you actually visited? Most of it seems like a miserable place for parents of small children to live.
  - newaccount74 4y ago
    Haha right. The small towns in Italy I've been to have no sidewalk, to get anywhere you have to walk on a narrow road, and people on mopeds and tuned up cars are racing past you all the time.
spaceman_2020 4y ago
Having a baby makes you realize how anti-baby all of modern life is. From the lack of space in cities to the silent pressure at work to put in extra effort to “make up” for your maternity/paternity leave. No wonder birth rates are falling off a cliff.
- esalman 4y ago
  Absolutely. We were international students to the US, so we waited for a long time trying to sort out our future before having a baby- studies, immigration, employment among other things.

ignormies 4y ago

The issue isn't purely house vs apartment. It's a symptom of our neighborhood design. Not Just Bikes has a really good video on why suburbia (usually single family housing) is often worse for children than denser environments. https://youtu.be/oHlpmxLTxpw https://youtu.be/oHlpmxLTxpw

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
onlypositive 4y ago
Definitely agree it comes down to design, this video is really just about one type of suburbia, the type without any shops or recreational facilities of any kind or even footpaths to get around. The suburbs I grew up in were full of kids running around from house to house to park to shop to tree to trains to busses to school to tennis court to basketball court to skate park etc. Urban areas where I grew up tended to be kind of concrete filled jungles. Similar facilities but nowhere near as exercise encouraging. Now we live in a country where suburbs lack footpaths and there isn't much to do locally. We're considering moving back to another suburb in a nearby city that was urban and apartment filled but at least had a local mall, parks and rec centre that was extremely popular and well utilised.
- ignormies 4y ago
  Yep definitely agree. I grew up in Phoenix and moved to the Bay Area after I graduated. I've come to absolutely adore the density (as paltry as it may be compared to other places) and abhor the environment where I came from. I can finally walk, bike, or train to 99% of things I do day-to-day. I'd never ever move back to Phoenix, but likewise I don't see myself ever moving to, say, NYC. It goes too far in the other direction and is one of those concrete jungles you speak of. I really think cities like London and Amsterdam strike a great middleground. Density, but not at the cost of green space.

nicolas_t 4y ago

Don't the apartments in the Bay area have children playground nearby? Here in HK, there's almost always a children playground within 5 minutes walking distance of any apartment tower. Just next to our place we have 3 different playgrounds, it's been great because even though we live in an apartment, our son has met a lot of his neighbours by playing at the playgrounds.

esalman 4y ago
You're right, there are nearby playgrounds. As the other comments put it, it is more about the walkability/design of the neighborhoods that's the issue.
- nicolas_t 4y ago
  Ah yes, that does make a big difference, most people here don't have cars (109 cars per 1000 people in HK compared to 831 cars per 1000 people in the US) so everything here is designed around walking/public transportation.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

fxtentacle 4y ago

Italy does this extremely well. There's public town squares pretty much everywhere and in the evening people walk there with their kids. You get to gossip with all your neighbors and your kids can play, run and scream until they're tired.

Pamar 4y ago
This is because Italy has lots of small towns/villages. Large cities (e.g. Milan) are an entirely different story. Also, if you live outside of large cities... you can't do much without a car, which implies another set of problems.
nradov 4y ago
The birth rate in Italy is down to 1.24 so I don't believe your claim that they're doing anything extremely well. How much of Italy have you actually visited? Most of it seems like a miserable place for parents of small children to live.
- newaccount74 4y ago
  Haha right. The small towns in Italy I've been to have no sidewalk, to get anywhere you have to walk on a narrow road, and people on mopeds and tuned up cars are racing past you all the time.

spaceman_2020 4y ago

Having a baby makes you realize how anti-baby all of modern life is. From the lack of space in cities to the silent pressure at work to put in extra effort to “make up” for your maternity/paternity leave. No wonder birth rates are falling off a cliff.

esalman 4y ago
Absolutely. We were international students to the US, so we waited for a long time trying to sort out our future before having a baby- studies, immigration, employment among other things.